Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott gave a passionate defense of his team while expressing frustration with how officials handled one of the key plays in Saturday’s 33-30 overtime divisional round loss to the Denver Broncos.
On a third-and-11 pass play in overtime from Buffalo’s 36-yard line, quarterback Josh Allen threw a deep pass to wide receiver Brandin Cooks, who went up and appeared to catch the ball through Broncos defensive back Ja’Quan McMillian’s left hand. However, as Cooks started to go to the ground, McMillian brought his right hand in to the ball. As both Cooks and McMillian hit the ground, the fourth-year cornerback emerged with the ball corralled in his right hand and the play was ruled an interception.
“It’s hard for me to — and I’ve had a chance to look at it — it’s hard for me to understand why it was ruled the way it was ruled,” McDermott said after the game. “If it is ruled that way, then why wasn’t it slowed down, just to make sure that we have this right. That would have made a lot of sense to me. To make sure that we have this thing right, because that’s a pivotal play in the game. We have the ball at the (20-yard line) and maybe kicking a game-winning field goal right there. I’ll just leave it at that.
“But I’m saying it because I’m standing up for Buffalo, dammit. I’m standing up for us. What went on, that is not how it should go down, in my estimation. These guys spent three hours out there, playing football, pouring their guts out. To not even say, ‘Hey, let’s just slow this thing down.’ That’s why I’m bothered.”
McDermott said that because it was overtime and coach’s challenges are not in play, he used Buffalo’s first timeout “because it seemed like the process was not slowing down.”
“When I called the timeout, I asked (referee) Brad Allen on our sideline, who is assisting us on our sideline, I said, ‘Hey, can you get (referee) Carl (Cheffers) over here?’” McDermott said. “Carl came over, and those guys are great. They were great. I said, ‘Hey, what did you see?’ And then quickly somebody said, ‘New York has confirmed.’ From that point, it was a moot point. We were moving on. Had I not called timeout, they were just moving on, it appeared. Now, the process that was going on before I called timeout, I can’t tell you what that was, in all fairness.”
McDermott was asked if, in his eyes, it was a catch by Cooks and down by contact.
“In my eyes, it was, yes,” McDermott said. “But even if it wasn’t. I’m being objective here. Even if it wasn’t, the players are owed, to me, ‘Hey, let’s stop it, let’s slow it down, let’s put the head referee and give him a chance to look at the monitor,’ just to make sure.”
After the game, Cheffers spoke to a pool reporter and explained the process.
“The receiver has to complete the process of a catch,” Cheffers said. “He was going to the ground as part of the process of the catch and he lost possession of the ball when he hit the ground. The defender gained possession of it at that point. The defender is the one that completed the process of the catch, so the defender was awarded the ball.”
On the CBS broadcast, rules analyst Gene Steratore agreed with the call.
“I’m not sure that Cooks has possession coming to the ground.” – @GeneSteratore pic.twitter.com/AX42TqhAYP
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) January 18, 2026
“This is really close,” Steratore said on the broadcast. “I’m not sure Cooks has possession coming to the ground to say that it would be simultaneous. It feels to me like Cooks doesn’t have firm possession of the football when they’re down by contact … you would go interception here, because the ball doesn’t hit the ground. If (Cooks) doesn’t have firm possession but the defensive back does whenever he rolls, the defensive back is down by contact.”
The concept of simultaneous possession that Steratore mentions is an important factor. In the NFL Rulebook, under Rule 8, Section 1, Article 3, which lays out the rulings for a completed or intercepted pass, one of the notes states: “If a pass is caught simultaneously by two eligible opponents, and both players retain it, the ball belongs to the passers. It is not a simultaneous catch if a player gains control first and an opponent subsequently gains joint control.”
If Cooks had been deemed to have possession of the ball, even if McMillian then got the ball as the two players went to the ground and emerged with it, the ruling would have been a completed pass, with Cooks being ruled down by contact. However, as Steratore said, it was deemed that Cooks did not have possession of the ball before McMillian took it from him.
Had the Cooks catch stood, the Bills — who forced a Broncos punt to start the overtime period — would have been in position to win with a field goal.
Instead, after the interception, the Broncos took control of the ball at their own 20-yard line. A couple of plays later, the Broncos were near midfield at their own 47-yard line. On second-and-10, Broncos quarterback Bo Nix, who suffered a season-ending ankle injury late in overtime, threw a pass down the left sideline to wide receiver Courtland Sutton. The pass fell incomplete, but cornerback Taron Johnson was called for defensive pass interference. That gave the Broncos the ball at the Buffalo 36-yard line.
“The defender held the receiver’s right arm down, which prevented him from going up for the pass with two hands,” Cheffers said in a pool report. “He was attempting a one-arm grab of the ball. And so, that restriction of his right arm was why pass interference was called.”
On the same play that Johnson was called for defensive pass interference, which advanced the ball 17 yards for the Broncos, Bills defensive end Joey Bosa was also called for roughing the passer. Because the pass interference was called, Bosa’s penalty was declined. Had the former penalty not been called, the latter would have been accepted by the Broncos and the ball would have moved up to the Buffalo 38-yard line.
Two plays after Johnson’s penalty, Nix threw deep again, this time inside the 10-yard line to Marvin Mims Jr. Bills cornerback Tre’Davious White was in coverage, a few steps behind Mims. Replays showed that White, who didn’t turn around to play the ball, slapped Mims’ left arm down with his left hand before wrapping up the Broncos wide receiver.
“I felt like it was (the right call),” Steratore said on the broadcast. “I felt like he chopped down on that left arm when he wasn’t playing the football. I felt like it was a good call.”
Cheffers agreed that it was the correct call.
“(It) was early contact and an arm grab that that materially restricted the receiver,” Cheffers said.
The penalty set up the Broncos at the 8-yard line. After Nix took a knee to set up kicker Will Lutz, White was penalized for confronting an official over his penalty and taking his helmet off and slamming it on the ground. White’s unsportsmanlike foul was inconsequential, giving the Broncos an extra 6 yards before Lutz came on the field and kicked the game-winner.